Why Does UA'S Situation Fall So Embarrassing?

The new season of professional tennis has been unveiled, but for sports brand Under Armour (

This year is a bit of a worry.

According to the world clothing and shoe net, on the day of January 4th, Andy Mu ray, the biggest spokesperson of the tennis industry, announced that he would withdraw from the 2018 Australian Open market. The British, who had been plagued by hip injuries for a long time, will undergo surgery.

Follow closely as

Sloan Stephens, a tennis girl who last year won the women's singles championship in the US, formally ended her 7 year partnership with Under Armour.

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Even a week ago, Stephens and Murray still appeared together on the advertising page of Under Armour.

But now, the biggest brand spokesperson of the brand is the first time in the early stage of the season, and one of them turns to rival. Under Armour's situation is somewhat awkward.

Stephens is wearing Under Armour equipment to reach the US net.

In early 2015, after the successful replacement of Adidas as the second largest sports brand in the United States, Under Armour, one of the most popular brands in the world, signed a high-profile contract with Murray, one of the four giants of the tennis industry. The two sides signed a contract for four years, with a total value of 15 million pounds.

Starting from the Australian Open in 2015, the British changed the original Adidas equipment to Under Armour, which is widely regarded as the first action of the US upstart brand in the field of tennis sponsorship.

But in fact, before that, Under Armour had already bet on the US online star Sloan Stephens.

As early as 2010, the US brand signed Stephens, who was only 17 years old.

In 2013, Stephens knocked out the favourites in the Australian Open women's singles finals. Serena Williams entered the semi-finals and entered the first World War.

At that time, Stephens was regarded as a new hope for American women's tennis.

Even in 2016, when the foot injury was far away from the stadium, the peak of the American girl came faster than expected. In 2017, Stephens, who was 24 years old, defeated Keith in the semi-finals, and then spent only 62 minutes to sweep his fellow countryman to win the Grand Slam championship.

After the Granville, Stephens became a new leader in the American women's net.

Together with the winner's podium, there is the brand logo of Under Armour, which has gained a lot of exposure in the name of sponsors.

Surprisingly, Stephens won the first Grand Slam title in less than six months, and Under Armour quickly lost the heavy endorser.

"I am very glad to share with you that I officially joined the Nike family!" in January 4th, Stephens announced the news on the social networking platform Instagram. The famous American figure in the picture was wearing Nike clothing.

Nike is the first sports brand sponsor of the professional tennis industry and is not surprised by the new owner of the US elite. The terms and conditions of the contract have not been disclosed.

In the face of the 7 year old players who have been digging and working together, Under Armour has generally sent blessings on their departure. "Both brands and Sloan Stephens have agreed to end cooperation. We want to thank her and her partnership in the past 7 years. We wish her every success in the future."

In fact, Under Armour claims that "peaceful breakup" has its own helplessness.

As a brand made up of sportswear such as tights, Under Armour started late in the field of sports shoes, and the time involved in tennis shoes was shorter.

Even after signing big star Andy Murray, the brand has claimed to speed up its entry into the tennis market, but in the past three years, there has never been a representative introduction of tennis products.

As early as 2013, when Stephens became famous after beating the world champion, the outside world has questioned the lack of tennis products of his sponsor Under Armour, wasting his spokesman and market resources.

"They were not involved in the production of tennis innovative products, which made me sad because the victory of the match was very helpful for tennis sales," sighed Sol Schwarz, a sales manager of Holabird Sports, a sporting goods retailer in Maryland at the time. (Sol Schwartz)

The more well-known story is that in the US Open in 2015, Murray, who was wearing Under Armour from head to toe, wore Adidas sneakers on the court.

So the old club openly sneer at social media: "you can choose a armour, or you can choose a weapon (weapon)."

Murray used the same tennis shoes worn in the US net.

In this regard, in the report, Murray wrote before the red soil and grass season wear shoes, is the brand overtime work and research and development.

Because of the higher demand for sports shoes in the hard courts such as the US net and the regular research and development for more than a year, Murray failed to wear the shoes of the new sponsors and could only walk on the US tennis court with the prominent "three bars".

In the field of tennis, product development is not yet mature, and American brands are still committed to sponsoring Murray into the business profitable tennis industry.

Now it seems that Stephens's departure is not related to the lack of tennis products. The signing of Murray's Under Armour is more of a problem. After all, products and technology are the core of brand competition in sports field.

For those who sponsor huge sums of money, if there is no corresponding product matching, opportunities based on spokesperson resources will soon be over. According to Murray's physical condition, the best time may have passed.

Under Armour clearly understands its position. For this reason, the choice of American brands may not be to insist on digging the tennis market, but to abandon business.

In recent years, with the gradual slowdown in performance, in order to curb the trend of brand retrogression, last October, the brand decided to make a downsizing of the business, throwing away some of the smaller sports categories.

Under Armour did not respond positively to the claims that tennis was excluded from tennis.

But in the end, the tennis battlefield is likely to become a "can't afford" game for American brands.

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